Adhikari and Chen groups explore Science and Art at Pioneer Works

This past summer, scientists from Caltech and other institutes gathered with artists and musicians to discuss everything from gravitational waves to tintype photography. The event took place at the Pioneer Works cultural center, which hosts exhibitions and lectures with the goal of bridging the gaps between different disciplines. For the Caltech physicists who attended the week-long event—including Rana Adhikari and Yanbei Chen, professors of physics at Caltech who both work on the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory, or LIGO—one goal was to think about their own research from a new perspective.

“One week wasn’t really long enough,” says Adhikari, who helped plan the collaborative event with Pioneer Works’ director of sciences Janna Levin, an astrophysicist based at Barnard College of Columbia University in New York City. “It’s useful to think about our science in a new way. We reset our brains.” Read the full Caltech Media Story here

Other Caltech/IQIM participants included graduate students Belinda Pang and Aaron Markowitz, along with former SURF students Nancy Aggarwal and Thomas Corbitt.